Saturday, September 30, 2006
Kathavaseshan(The Deceased) Malayalam - 2004
This movie is a beautiful example of how one can make good stories out of newspaper headlines. T.V. Chandran has written a story from a contemporary incident that he felt deeply about.I wish there are more directors like T.V.Chandran who will make realistic, hard hitting and original screenplays. Rather than make movies out of social issues with loads and loads of masala stuff.
All is not great about the movie though. The screenplay has got big holes, and at times you cannot help but laugh. But T.V.chandran compensates all of the shortcomings with a great climax. A climax that is shocking and hard-hitting. It brings down the wandering screenplay into a crashing halt, putting the whole movie into perspective.
kathavaseshan is about Gopinath Menon.An engineer by profession, he is all set to marry renuka menon.But suddenly one day he commits suicide. His fiancé Renuka Menon is shocked, but she is also curious about why he committed suicide.She had spoken to him for a little while and from what ever the short time she interacted.He doesn't seem to be a week hearted person. She starts to investigates about him.She talks to various people who knew gopinath and tries to paint a picture of his life and why he committed suicide. The reason why he committed suicide is the climax.
Dileep & Jyothirmayi
Following the typical citizen kane style Renuka's talks to gopinath's friends and acquaintance to know more about him. Unlike "Ek din achanak" in this movie the falsh backs are not biased this is just a straight forward story peiced together through various peoples. Renuka first goes to gopinath's village where she meets Janardanan(Vijayaragavan). Through him she comes to know gopinath's past love affair and how his long time girl friend got married to someone else.When you think that this is the reason for his suicide.the story takes the turn, actually gopinath was little sad, but he wasn't upset to commits suicide. He wasn't the usual guy who would take this matter to his heart and commit suicide or becomes a devadas.Rather he goes to her girl friends wedding and wishes them good luck.This intrigues her more. Such a strong willed guy. why did he commit suicide.?
Later renuka meets gopinath's friends/room mates from calcutta and ahmedabad.They tell more about gopinath, how he bleeded for every needy person. Renuka's search doesn't take her anywhere. At the end one of his old roommate comes and reveals the reason for his suicide.And i don't want to reveal the reason. watch it for yourself.
The movie is not all perfect it has some glitches. The story gets developed with renuka meeting peoples who knew gopinath. T.V.chandran over does the “coincidence meetings” to narrate more about gopinath.The height of this is that of a thief who comes to steal at renuka's house.when caught he starts telling about gopinath and how he helped him. Another stupid scene was at the suicide investigation agency. T.V.Chandran could have introduced gopinath's diary or something to avoid this too many coincidences thing.
"For those of us who have been thrown into hell, mysterious melodies and the torturing images of a vanished beauty will always bring us, in the midst of crime and folly, the echo of that harmonious insurrection which bears witness, throughout the centuries, to the greatness of humanity. -Albert Camus"
The movie starts with the albert camus quotes and shows the suicide. It then slowly pieces together a man, who feels deeply about peoples and is always ready to help and care for others. Through the flashbacks of so many people we come to know gopinath menon. A man who has impacted the life of so many people, a man who has made so many peoples life better. Through his life the director points out many things that we have ceased to feel for in this modern and materialistic world.
The movie talks about the sensitivity that we have lost.After watching the movie all i remembered was Vijay tendulkar's words on an outlook interview
I find increasingly that the media is out to deceive me, me as in the ordinary reader or viewer. There is an organized effort towards that, all raw material is turned into a thriller of some kind, there's a sense of breathlessness. That's misplaced because the genuinely important issues do not induce such urgency. News has to be reached to people with facts and in its right proportion. A news event happens once but the impression I get from television is that it happens some 10 or 20 or 100 times. They have to repeat, I understand that, but the repetition often distorts the original. When this happens with issues like rape, we lose our sensitivity to it, it doesn't enrage any longer.http://www.outlookindia.com/full.asp?fodname=20051107&fname=AATendulkar+%28F%29&sid=1
Cast and Credit
Dileep .... Gopinath
Jyothirmayi .... Renuka Menon
Vijayaraghavan .... Janardanan
Jagathi Sreekumar
Janardanan
Salim Kumar
Indrans
Bindu Panikkar
Awards:
At the state level.Kathavaseshan which was adjudged the second best feature film and the awards for screenplay (T.V. Chandran),Jayachandran(Music) and lyricist (Gireesh Puthenchery).